Review: ‘Girls’ – ‘Leave Me Alone’

A review of tonight’s “Girls” coming up just as soon as I work at a consumptive women’s hospital…

“I’m done.” -Marnie

Okay, I have two complaints about “Leave Me Alone,” one from the episode’s beginning, and one from its end, so let’s get those out of the way so we can get to all the good stuff.

First, I really didn’t like the majority of the book release party scene, where Hannah’s jealousy of the Jenny Slate character was ratcheted up a few degrees too high. Both her complaints about Slate being lucky enough to have a self-destructive boyfriend who died on her to provide material, and the two women’s passive-aggressive banter felt not far removed from how that kind of scene would play out in a traditional multi-camera sitcom with a laugh track. And in that context, I might have enjoyed some of those jokes; in this one, it felt tonally off.

Second, the Marnie/Hannah exchange in the final scene about whether Hannah has any friends left from preschool sounded way too clever for its own good – a joke that Lena Dunham or someone else liked too much to cut out, even though it doesn’t sound remotely like what Marnie would say in that moment, and becomes a distraction from the emotions of the scene.

Everything else, though? Terrific.

It’s the penultimate episode of the season, and after moving about aimlessly and/or making the same mistakes over and over, all four girls decide – or in some instances are told – that it’s time to make some changes. Shoshanna moves more aggressively into online dating. It’s fairly brief, as Shoshanna stories tend to be (she was originally not going to be a regular character until Dunham and Jenni Konner fell in love with Zosia Mamet’s performance), but made me laugh very much at Shoshanna explaining that her next date is with a guy in product development, “Which is perfect for me, because I love products!” (Shoshanna has always been pitched on a more sitcom level than the other three, so she can more easily get away with that kind of joke.)

Jessa gets an unexpected visit from Kathryn, which doesn’t go at all the way either I or Jess was expecting. This isn’t Kathryn showing up to yell at Jessa for tempting her loser husband, or even genuinely trying to rehire her (possibly in concert with kicking Jeff to the curb), but rather her maternal instincts getting pinged by the wild child who briefly took care of her daughters. Jessa’s the free spirit of the group, and from what we’ve seen, she seems to enjoy her antics more than Kathryn thinks she does, but Kathryn’s line about how she causes all this trouble without understanding why she’s doing it very much hit home, especially after her line in the warehouse episode about how she needs to stop creating so much drama. That moment when a young person realizes they have to stop screwing around and start “becoming the person you’re meant to be,” as Kathryn puts it, isn’t dramatized all that often – or if it is, it’s usually about manchildren who learn to grow up. (And often in films from “Girls” producer Judd Apatow.)

Hannah finally gets another paying job, even if it’s just pulling a few shifts with Ray at the coffee shop, and tries to impress her old writing teacher Powell(*) by participating in one of his readings, even though she doesn’t think of it as as a “me thing to do.” (And note that when he presses her on what a Hannah thing is, we immediately cut to Hannah and Adam inadvertently recreating the famous John and Yoko cover of Rolling Stone, only with both of them naked.) That Hannah screws things up by writing a new story on the subway over could be blamed on Ray’s advice, but Hannah has such a tendency to self-destruct that if it hadn’t been him steering her wrong, it would have been someone else. Hannah pausing for a reaction from the audience that never came is among the more mortifying, funny moments the show has done so far, and her disaster in turn led to the episode’s brutal climax.

(*) Played by key HBO family member Michael Imperioli, who both acts and writes.

Though we were introduced to Hannah and Marnie as the best of friends, and though the moment that seemed to seal the deal with “Girls” for most critics was the two of them joyously dancing to Robyn at the end of episode 3, it’s been a while since we’ve seen them enjoying each other’s company in that way. First, there was the ugliness over the role Hannah’s diary played in the breakup with Charlie, and then Hannah got sucked into this new relationship with Adam (against Marnie’s advice) at the exact moment Marnie was going into a post-breakup spiral.

This show has dealt a lot with Hannah and Marnie’s love life, and a little with their professional ambitions, but among the things it’s been savviest about is how it’s depicted this friendship, which dates back years now, and which has established certain patterns and assumptions over the years – even if the assumptions aren’t the same on both sides. So when they finally go to emotional blows, it’s as much about the argument Marnie had with Elijah in the warehouse party episode – each of them is convinced that the other is the selfish one, that they do nothing but talk about the other’s problems, that they are the reasonable one who’s been emotionally carrying the other for years – as it is the specific complaints in the moment about Tally, Marnie’s clothes (including the cutting remark about whether the dress would fit Hannah), Marnie paying all the bills, Adam, Charlie, etc. Neither wants to accept the possibility that the other is right and that they’ve been looking at this friendship through a crooked lens all these years. Hannah can’t be the wound, because Marnie has to be the wound, and vice versa. (Also, “wound” said that many times in such a compressed period? Funny.) They’re fighting about 17 things at once, but all of them amount to the same thing: a desire to have the moral high ground, to feel like the injured party, the misunderstood one in the friendship, the one too often taken advantage of by the other.

It feels not quite like any argument I’ve seen on television before – especially not between two female characters. It’s almost like they wrote it to get a Bechdel Test lifetime pass, but it also very much plays into where these two have been and where they’ve gone over these nine episodes.

We began the series with them as the best of friends, the closest of roommates, even though Hannah couldn’t pay the rent, even though Hannah was sick of Marnie’s whining about Charlie and Marnie was sick of Jessa’s recurring presence in their life. We go into the finale with them barely on speaking terms, and Marnie announcing a plan to move out of that apartment.

Not really an improvement for anyone, but fertile ground to cover in the finale.

Some other thoughts:

* Because “Veep” (which made fewer episodes) wrapped up its season tonight, next week’s “Girls” season finale airs at 10 p.m. (but will be immediately rerun at 10:30 for those who don’t know that and don’t have a DVR season pass). I’ll have both a finale review and another Dunham/Konner interview to bookend the one from press tour.

* One early tidbit from the interview as relates to the fight scene here: Dunham wanted it filmed in chronological order so that she and Allison Williams wouldn’t have to constantly cycle back and forth between different emotional states. So even though it’s more efficient to, say, film all the living room scenes at the same time, they did it this way.

* This episode isn’t nearly as much about the Hannah/Adam relationship as last week’s, so he mostly gets to be in the background and be both awesome and hilarious. (“Don’t come in for, like, ten minutes” or Hannah sitting on his back at the exact wrong moment). I wouldn’t say this is a case of the show fixing a broken character, as I found Adam interesting back when I assumed he was just a creep, but it’s still remarkable how much of a transformation that character has been through.

* I had to go back and clock it, but Ray says “slim leg” four times in less than 8 seconds. Not quite all the uses of “wound” in the fight scene, but not too shabby.

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I think that Lena Dunham is a great writer and the scene where Marnie calls her out is believable and quite funny actually.

By: Ginricky

06.12.2012 @ 12:28 AM

I agree James – completely realistic! Coming from the viewpoint of someone who’s “been there” (if I can put it so bluntly) – this particular scene really hit home. A great episode, I felt.

By: Joe

06.11.2012 @ 3:28 AM

I hated these people in real life when I knew them in my 20s, and I don’t think I’d want to waste time watching them on television. I’m waiting for the Mad Men review!

By: Charles

06.11.2012 @ 1:13 PM

I could only watch the pilot in 5-minute chunks because I felt much the same. But something clicked, maybe it’s because so much of the show seems to be inviting that response (though I’d call it distaste rather than hatred), in the same way that it invites us to comment on Hannah’s weight.

A good example is Hannah’s pathetic attempt to write about something ‘real’ for the reading. While on the surface it’s just another instance of Hannah screwing up, it’s also a parody of the sort of mawkish, adolescent excuse for literature that was so successful for her classmate. Hannah and Adam recreate the John and Yoko pose only for her to struggle to push off his dead weight so she can turn over. When the world rewards so much garbage, when your friends reward it as well, what are you going to do? Give in and allow its dead weight to crush you?

I can’t help comparing it to cop shows where I end up despising the self-righteous protagonist so much that I end up rooting for the bad guys. But unlike those, this show recognises that, and covertly invites it.

So what are you going to do? When you reach your twenties and find out you’re privileged, white, over-educated but under-skilled and ultimately aimless, and many people hate you and are probably right to do so, then how are you going to deal with that? Are you really just a waste of space? For me, that’s what the show’s all about. You could just hope such people all go away and die, but I don’t think that’s really a solution.

It’s still hard to forgive Allison Williams for appearing in that Yale video, even though it was only a few seconds. But I guess we all make mistakes when we’re young.

By: KobraCola

06.11.2012 @ 9:52 PM

Is there like some secret internet site where a bunch of white guys agreed that they had to write a disparaging comment on every article on the TV show Girls until it was taken off TV? (This is coming from a white guy, by the way)

By: gco211

06.11.2012 @ 3:29 AM

I am really loving this show right now. I was hopeful at the pilot, which showed potential, but this show is really hitting its stride now. The John-Yoko cut was absolutely perfect, Adam beat-boxing while grabbing a jar of mayonnaise was randomly awesome.

That said, I thought Hannah switching stories was much more about Marnie’s disapproval, which amped up the final scene, than it was about Ray’s comments. Also, note that the story she wrote on the ride over was about a dead boyfriend. Thus, her stopping for reaction when she said her boyfriend died twice, tying back into the initial scene where she’s jealous her rival’s boyfriend killed himself while high on percoset. I also disliked the jokes they were going for in that first scene for the reasons you listed, but her obsession with dead boyfriends making for inherently interesting reading material nearly made up for it.

By: rachel

06.11.2012 @ 7:52 AM

I agree that Marnie’s disapproval (re the hoarder story) was probably much more significant to Hannah than Ray’s. Ray’s criticism was just the straw the broke the camel’s back. Ray’s (ridiculous) criticism (acid rain, really?) only had an effect because it echoed Marnie’s: it set off the impulse– to write a new story on the subway– more substantively due to the insecurity that her best friend Marnie (especially in the aftermath of that book party) had set off.

By: Blarghly

06.11.2012 @ 3:34 AM

It’s hilarious that neither Marnie nor Hannah ever consider the fact that they are BOTH the wound. But then, narcissists never do.

By: Trilby

06.12.2012 @ 2:11 PM

“The wound” was a great exchange and a great example of how a word loses it’s meaning till you start to wonder if it’s really a word after you say it too many times.

By: cgeye

06.24.2012 @ 7:40 AM

another word for ‘wound’ is ‘gash’ — and I wonder if there was a network note that said, “Ladies, just this once, step back from the internalized misogyny, just a skosh”, because I can’t imagine Dunham stepping back from that level of ick, when she’s shown every other one short of incest and rape.

By: BigDerf

06.11.2012 @ 4:10 AM

My favorite Adam bit was how brazen he was grabbing the Mayonnaise before his “10 minutes” line. Dude has no shame.

By: John

06.11.2012 @ 4:26 AM

Agree with most of what you said Alan. As a 20-something, I could definitely relate to the angst of jealousy of how classmates are doing. “liked to much to cut out” cmon Alan. I know thats not the purpose of the column, but it jades my opinion. Plus you’ve seen all episodes for a while. That should be cleaned up.

By: Peter

06.11.2012 @ 5:34 AM

To be fair, the “liked to much to cut out” was in reference to Marnie’s “This is why you have no friends from pre-school” line, in that it doesn’t seem like something she would actually say. I think I agree with Alan on that one, it seemed there only to set up Hanna’s punchline.

By: John

06.11.2012 @ 2:59 PM

Sorry, was quibbling with “to” vs “too”

By: wallywalters

06.11.2012 @ 5:03 AM

Sitcom? More like a non-com. Bleah!

By: David

06.11.2012 @ 5:23 AM

???

By: Michael

06.11.2012 @ 5:24 AM

Wally is upset at the lack of sitting in this particular sitcom.

By: Steve

06.11.2012 @ 5:43 AM

I think he is referring to the supposed lack of comedy in the show. I don’t completely agree (as I feel the show is pretty funny) but I also don’t feel that is the main goal of the show. This isn’t Arrested Development. There isn’t going to be a rapid fire of jokes, it’s more of a drama with comedic elements.

By: sally

02.04.2015 @ 5:00 PM

From the pilot, Wally claims to hate the show, yet he continues to watch it, and continues to comment here about how much he hates it.

By: wallywalters

02.04.2015 @ 11:51 PM

Hate the show? Nope. Just object to its classification as a comedy.

By: berkowit28

06.11.2012 @ 5:21 AM

What the hell is beat-boxing?

By: mgrabois

06.11.2012 @ 7:05 AM

It’s when you make the rap/dance music background noise with your mouth: the pops, clicks, “nst” sounds, etc.

By: hRe43

06.15.2012 @ 8:17 AM

I am too old to be in here…wow…
Seriously I was an initial hater getting wrapped up in all the drama that surrounded the premiere…but something about Dunham vulnerability and her willingness to lay it all on the line with this character really appealed to me. The writing and the characters became more fascinating and now I am hooked. Looking past all the drama outside the show this is a very well written show with well sketched out characters and great stories. It is easy to see why its on the critics top ten list.

By: brentalistair

06.11.2012 @ 5:22 AM

I have no idea why but Shoshanna’s description of her date (He likes movies and food!) made me laugh harder than anything has for a long time. I am never quite sure of where I stand on this show. I find the characters to be relentlessly horrible and difficult to enjoy at times but somehow I usually find it amusing if not outright hilarious. However, something about her delivery in that scene just absolutely made me burst out laughing for a good few minutes. For at least that few minutes, I was very much a fan.

By: jennyh

06.11.2012 @ 6:03 AM

I totally agree about the book party jealousy dialogue being tonally off. However, the “no friends from preschool” line feels more like something that that Marnie was throwing in Hannah’s face — like she knows Hannah is sensitive about not having friends from childhood? (Maybe I’m projecting here, because I don’t have friends from childhood, either!)

I don’t know if I really bought the Kathryn/Jessa scene as much as Alan did. It got my “don’t tell me what to do!” hackles up, but apparently not Jessa’s, so we’ll see how it plays out.

By: racheld

06.11.2012 @ 8:03 AM

Agree the “no friends from preschool” line is probably something Marnie said because she knew Hannah was sensitive about it– something that Hannah had talked about in the past (like the deep dark excessive masturbation thing that came up at the climax of the fight).

By: cgeye

06.24.2012 @ 7:52 AM

If Hannah had stuck to ‘excessive’ masturbation, she’d still be a damn-sight better off than with Adam.

I thought the youth had better information about learning and respecting their individual sexual preferences, as well as decently negotiating same with their partners, but obviously high school and college (and the Internet, and the wealth of sexual literature during the past 30 years) can teach neither Hannah nor Adam nothing. It’s not as if either are working demanding jobs…

And, why is Hannah so pissy about Adam masturbating while she’s there? It is a straight-girl law that when a man thinks of sex while she’s nearby, he must think of her and involve her? For all the lousy lays we’re seen her endure, wouldn’t half of them be eliminated if she just let him tell her what he likes, without the pressure of pleasing her? It’s not as if we’ve even seen him put her pleasure first.

So, she’s tolerating a weird-ass actors who prefers hanging out with dykes, sculpting metal and wood, quick to outbursts and as slow as she is on the emotional intelligence uptake… and Hannah should jump at the chance to move in with him? Maybe Jessa had the right idea: Romance, without finance, has no chance.

By: maryploppins

06.11.2012 @ 6:45 AM

I’d say this was a pretty good episode overall. I actually didn’t think Hannah’s jealousy in the first scene was strange or “off” at all, but I do agree that comments like “I know, she’s so lucky!!” (referring to the boyfriend’s suicide) were a bit over the top. But on the other hand, I didn’t feel that the passive-aggressive banter between Hannah and Jenny at the party was over the top at all when I was watching it. I just thought it was funny and I could picture myself feeling jealous and annoyed in Hannah’s shoes too.

I mostly liked the scene with Jessa and her former employer in Jessa’s apartment, but I didn’t necessarily find it believable that this woman would be nice enough to want to put out all this effort to give motherly advice to the babysitter who was the object of her husband’s wandering eye though. That was a little strange to me, but I liked the advice she gave and Jessa’s reaction to it.

The fight between Hannah and Marnie at the end was pretty hysterical. Their strange contest to come out on top as the most “injured party” and the most “taken advantage of” just felt so true to slightly ridiculous arguments I’ve seen friends have with each other and probably been involved in myself in the past.

Next week’s ep should be interesting … I’m kinda sad that we’re almost at the end of the season already.

By: rachel

06.11.2012 @ 8:19 AM

One of the things I liked about the passive-aggressive banter is that, if you pay attention to their conversation from the beginning, Hannah is pretty much as passive-aggressive as Jenny (and is passive-aggressive first– cf. her compliment about finishing a book “no matter what the content is”).

What made the Jessa/employer conversation more plausible to me is a distinct sense that the employer recognized something very familiar in Jessa… e.g. something about her own past, her own younger self.

In my own experience with women BFF arguments/ resentments, I have to say that almost always it’s been about what this fight was about: who’s the inveterate “supportive” friend, the shoulder to cry on; who’s the friend so wrapped up in their own problems, always making it all about them.

And in my experience 2 friends can feel they’re the underappreciated friend at the same time, as in this case– often because it involves focusing on different periods of the friendship (now that I have a boyfriend and you don’t vs. all that time I spent listening to your relationship problems, etc.).

By: Jack

06.11.2012 @ 10:34 AM

[tinyurl.com]
I think that Lena Dunham is the next Woody Allen and I’m not the only one comparing her ro him. Heres an article from Vogue saying, “Dunham has often been compared to Woody Allen, and not unreasonably so. Both make movies about the comic tribulations of brainy, plain-looking people who are smarter and more humiliated than those around them. Yet Dunham already seems the more grown-up of the two, and not only because she doesn’t romanticize Manhattan (she deals, in this series, in grotty Brooklyn) or hoard all the best one-liners for herself—she lets her other cast members shine.”

By: Wallwriting

06.11.2012 @ 1:28 PM

I get what Lena Dunham is trying to do here, or at least I think I do, and the show has its funny moments, but I’m surprised at how well this show is reviewing with critics. A show with all dysfunctional characters isn’t a problem if the characters are dysfunctional is some kind of interesting way, but there isn’t anything about any of these people to redeem their insufferable personalities. Both of Larry David’s shows had characters who, while self-absorbed, at least had funny and truthful observations about the silly mechinations people go through just to function in society. What, exactly, is it that’s supposed to get me to tune into this show?

Besides that, I feel like this is one of those shows that does something different (one of the good parts of the show is clearly that it sets a tone you don’t see elsewhere) and so gets equated with somehow being deep or smart. It certainly isn’t deep, and because of how shallow it is, I’m not even sure it’s all that smart. Maybe it’s just so fascinating to see something new that it’s easy to confuse new with good. And maybe it’s for that reason that I’ve wanted to like this show, but I just can’t convince myself that this show is good.

By: Kevin

06.11.2012 @ 1:53 PM

Well-thought out critique of the show, and the overwhelmingly positive response it’s getting from critics. I also wonder if the authentic New York setting is a contributing factor to the critical adoration.

By: RJ

06.11.2012 @ 1:36 PM

This show is terrible… Amazed someone green lit it

By: sally

02.04.2015 @ 5:02 PM

Then feel free to NOT watch or comment on it.

By: Kevin

06.11.2012 @ 1:47 PM

I’ve watched most episodes of this show, and while I don’t mind it (it has it’s moments), I still don’t get the adoration that leads to words like “terrific” to describe it. While Lena Dunham is obviously a talented writer, her performance leaves something to be desired. In fact, her performance in the big fight scene in this episode unfortunately kind of took me out of the moment and stripped it of the intended drama.

By: Vitaly

06.11.2012 @ 3:14 PM

This show is awful. Just the worst.

By: sally

02.04.2015 @ 5:03 PM

Again…feel free to NOT watch or comment on it. Why be miserable? Or just like to complain?

By: Nick

06.11.2012 @ 4:48 PM

I don’t think this show is all that funny (it has some moments). The reason I watch it each week is because this is a show that is different. How many shows out there revolve entirely around, basically, three 20ish females experiencing growing up into adulthood and try to portray it realistically? None, really, right? Are all the characters annoying? Yes. Do any of them think of anyone but themselves? No (except, strangely, maybe Adam). And there have been several arguments among the characters about who’s the most selfish. The problem is that, over a season, none of them (again, strangely enough, besides Adam) change or self evaluate or seem redeemable in any way (even Charlie Sheen on 2.5 men had his moments of humanity – and can you think of a more feckless human?). Hannah causes a major problem in Marnie’s life and all she can think of is: the writing was good though, right? We get a hint that Jessa might change, but Hannah? Selfish. Marnie? Selfish. One gets a boyfriend, one loses a boyfriend. Still no growth, no self actualization. Just disappointment after humiliating disappointment. I don’t know anyone like these girls, and if I did, I wouldn’t ever associate myself with them. Yes, Lena Dunham knows these characters well and has fleshed them out with, likely, the help of Apatow. The reason Hannah, Marnie, and Jessa are so well drawn and Shoshanah is not is, I imagine, because Lena and her 2 best friends are just. like. this. And they liked Zosia Mamet enough to give her a part – but it’s more of a caricature than anything real because Lena Dunham probably never knew or lived with a girl like her. And that’s fine. Will this show go down as an HBO great? I hope not because you don’t want to look back and see girls who are so intensely narcissitic become a symbol of what young people, especially young women, anywhere have become.

By: Hislocal

06.13.2012 @ 1:05 PM

“I don’t know anyone like these girls, and if I did, I wouldn’t ever associate myself with them.”…….this is the most consistent anti-Girls argument I’ve seen, week after week, on this board….and it holds no water. I don’t know anyone like Al Swearengen either, but that was a good show.

“Will this show go down as an HBO great? I hope not because you don’t want to look back and see girls who are so intensely narcissitic become a symbol of what young people, especially young women, anywhere have become.”……..seriously? That’s what you think about when you watch TV? Was the Sopranos bad because they became a symbol of Italian-Americans? Was Deadwood bad because they became a symbol of South Dakotan pioneers? Another terrible argument, and I’m only calling you out because you’re the 100th person I’ve seen make this type of statement.

Overall, I give this show a B+ (y’know, pretty good)……but reading all this highbrow, monocle-falling-into-my-martini vitriol coming from the (seemingly) exact type of upper-middle class white people that the show supposedly stereotypes, just makes me want to puff up and defend it for some reason.

Oh and one last thing – I can’t help but LOL at all the WASP-y viewers that complain that the show has no minorities……you’re right, let’s throw a Mr. Wu in there to prove we’re not racist, right?

By: Margaret

06.14.2012 @ 12:57 AM

The thing I have to say, I guess, is that I like it precisely because no one is growing or changing.

I am an overeducated but underskilled upper middle class white girl living in a big city, going nowhere and doing nothing. My friends are all the same.

Not all of us like Girls (I do), but we all agree on one thing. These characters are aimless, and so are we. It doesn’t give us a purpose, but at least it helps us remember that we aren’t completely alone.

By: Sarah

06.14.2012 @ 8:12 AM

‘Yes, Lena Dunham knows these characters well and has fleshed them out with, likely, the help of Apatow.’

Because she couldn’t possibly have done it by herself, right? I hate that when a woman does something well there are always men making this kind of lazy assumption that a man must have helped her.

By: Nick

06.14.2012 @ 1:58 PM

I guess I can keep up the discussion?

To H: So, I watch Girls and like it – even though I find the actual characters to be totally unlikeable and have no problem acknowledging that (nor am I the first or last person who likes the show to do so). The characters are realistic but aren’t learning anything about themselves and I think that would give the show a more genuine and human arc. It touches it at points, but could and should delve into it more (I’m hopeful the finale does this). Sopranos/Deadwood comparison? I look at it from the point of view that Girls is really the first show about Girls this age dealing with their problems, and that is run, written, and acted pretty much by a mostly female, young cast – that’s a big deal – versus a more in depth look at, really, at Western or Italian mobster life. That’s why it’s important.

Also, at this point in posting, I don’t think too many people are complaining about the lack of diversity in the show. I didn’t and won’t. Dunham does what she knows, and regardless of the fact that the show takes place in Brooklyn, she doesn’t appear to know diversity very well. Mr. Wu (Chinese? Korean?) will have to wait for another season.

To M: I’m glad you and your friends self-identify and like that they don’t change. We just have a difference of opinion. Agree to disagree.

To S: Is Apatow as mentor really that far a reach? He’s been successful at getting his own brand of movie out and has helped K. Wiig do her own movie for women. He’s using his name and experience to help women. This show is certainly Dunham’s doing and her name should rightfully be all over it.

By: cgeye

06.24.2012 @ 8:10 AM

The difference between the standard criticism of GIRLS and of the big boys of cable is that those boys (addressed as men, even when at their most petty, violent and juvenile) are never mistaken for good men. Everyone save their families know Don Draper is a slut, that Heisenberg is ruthless, and Swearingen is a kingpin who’d pimp out his true love, for the right leverage gained.

But, endlessly, these women are given the slack fluffy baby polar bears are — oh, aren’t they endearing, clumsily magnetic, fascinating in their flaws, frozen-yogurt-eating, goofy-dancing to the latest hits, until they slash your face, of course. There is this drive to embrace them as products of a protected class — girls who could be our younger relatives in the big city — which denies the social toxicity that would get them punched in any community that had to deal with them, full-force.

As it stands, they’re actually fairly isolated, none of them having to work a steady job where they’re expected to act like grownups (I take it that Marnie’s boss is more of a drunken teen than she ever is…), none of them having grownup boyfriends that expect loyalty, discretion and non-sporadic attentiveness. The reason these gals are watchable is that their world demands nothing from them, in an era where so many adults can’t survive on their wishbones, sparkly unicorns and dreams.

By: hcmfrey

06.11.2012 @ 5:12 PM

This is one of the best new shows on TV right now. Lena Dunham has such a smart way of writing that is incredibly relatable to the audience.

By: slam

06.11.2012 @ 5:55 PM

Shoshana is drop dead sexy AND hilarious. I want more of her !

By: Sean E.

06.11.2012 @ 6:19 PM

Ray really has grown on me. After rewatching the first episode, his rant about McDonald’s really made a lot of sense. Every time he is on screen it is funny.

And more Shoshanna please! I would love a spin off consisting of her on the couch watching and reacting to “Baggage”

By: JMRII

06.12.2012 @ 10:32 PM

Ray is the best character in the show, although I could see how it would be diminishing returns if he was on more often.

Shoshana is great too- such a raw nerve…

By: Sean E.

06.11.2012 @ 6:22 PM

Ray has really grown on me. I wasn’t sure what to make of his character after the first episode, but he has gotten funnier as the season has gone on, in my opinion.

And more Shoshanna please! She steals every scene she is in. The scene earlier in the season when she was explaining to Hannah what the show “Baggage” is might be the funniest scene of the season so far.

By: Deborah

06.11.2012 @ 8:54 PM

The scene between Marnie and Hannah is a replica of my drop down fight with my best friend from college, POST-college and living together in New York. It is what I have been wanting to write about ever since, darn it! Anyway, I think the show is great. Are these issues important or relevant? Does it matter what these twenty-somethings, educated, white and supposedly under-skilled, end up doing, feeling? Do their existential crises matter? Why? These are questions that the show is making me ask. I feel the show is bravely exploring these questions without any answer beforehand. And since art does not give any clear cut answers, I don’t know how much or how well we will ever get a sense of the RIGHT of these Girls to explore, cultivate, and find themselves in the way their generation and class is given to. Shouldn’t we all embrace an opportunity to “explore” and find ourselves? Who has a right? Is the role of art for this purpose or is their some other more important role that art plays (rather than self-discovery or aesthetics some social role to which Ray alludes.

By: Evie

06.11.2012 @ 8:56 PM

That fight scene was amazing in its rawness and real-ness. Very close friends who have known each other through different life stages do have fights like that, especially if they are also roommates. It was hard to watch — I kept wanting to stop them from going too far or saying something that they would really and truly regret, like Marnie bringing up the masturbating at 8 (or was it eighth grade?).

It’s a brilliant show and I’m really happy I stuck with it past the pilot, which I did not love.

By: KobraCola

06.11.2012 @ 10:38 PM

This episode was alright, but I liked last week’s and the week before’s episodes much better. I agree with the 2 smaller flaws you pointed out, Alan, and the fight didn’t really interest me all that much, I’m not sure why. I think it’s because we only got a small glimpse of Hannah and Marnie’s friendship at its peak (i.e. dancing to Robyn) before it seemingly started to unravel with Charlie reading Hannah’s journal at that open mic thing. I, personally, didn’t care enough about their friendship before this fight for it to really affect the way I feel about the characters.

By: RTVF

06.11.2012 @ 11:17 PM

this show tells the truth about being a 20-something girl. it is dead on.

By: Mike

06.11.2012 @ 11:39 PM

Alan, your two complaints are both described as “second” complaints. Just letting you know because it made it slightly confusing to read.

By: David

06.12.2012 @ 5:05 AM

As a super ambitious guy I find the characters lack of direction and self pity a bit annoying, but still love the show.
I look at some of the girls in the show and see girls I have been involved with or personalities I’m friends with. In real life, those personalities piss me off though. But the entire series seems to be from my perspective, which is why I like it. It seems to be saying “look at all these narcissistic twenty somethings with no actual skills, a huge sense of entitlement that they are owed something, some mistaken ideal about how they have some unique experiences that everyone somehow wants to know about despite the fact that they are painfully normal, how ridiculous!” It is only because the series seems to be intent on exposing these personalities in a way I have always kind of wanted to do, that I like it.

By: bitchstolemyremote

06.12.2012 @ 1:13 PM

The scene between Hannah and Marnie really resonated with us, but it was the Jessa and Katherine piece that really worked for us. That was one frank discussion!

That argument…why has that not been done on tv/movies 50 times before? The realism was both funny and frightening.

By: Debora

06.14.2012 @ 4:03 PM

I like this show, i find it very entertaining and amusing. Maybe it’s too far fetched but I feel the discomfort that this show generates in a lot of people, is “similar” to what people felt about Friday Night Lights when watching (like they could be in the same “category” of discomfort). The difference is that the latter was more coveted because te characters were archetypal in some way (the sports hero (wounded!!), the beautiful, the underdog, the slut, the good girl) and everybody loves to see the archetypal twisted. Also you had two sympathetic leading characters. But the majority of people couldn’t stand it (I get my friends to watch, praising the acting, saying that “you never seen this intensity on tv”). I read various forums and I can’t understand the “moral critique” of Girls… I think we live with them everyday they could be ourselves our sisters, our mothers, coworkers, friends and a lot of women, but people is shocked to see them on t.v. Everybody is ugly (and funny) at some point.

By: LN

06.18.2012 @ 6:45 AM

Marnie proclaiming herself to be a good friends minutes after nastily implying that Hannah is fat? blech.